Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I spent a lot of time Saturday and Sunday putting together quilt kits for the class I am going to be teaching if enough people sign up. On the class supplies list I have the quantities of fabric needed for the project we are going to make, but some people have a hard time figuring out what to buy so I thought I would give them the option of buying a kit. I just could not believe how long it took me to put these together. The maximum class size (due to the size of the room) will be 10 so I want to make sure I have at least 10 kits and maybe even a few more to give people more of choice. Whatever I have left I will just make the quilts myself for my stash of completed giveaway quilts. With all the fabric I have I can't belive how hard of a time I am having coming up with enough to coordinate four prints. Sometimes the pieces I have are just size of the size I need, so it looks like I need to put together some type of scrap quilt in my spare time (LOL!).

I finished quilting the green cow quilt this past weekend and got the binding on. I started hand stitching the binding on the back and I am about 1/4 done.

I have been keeping up on my exercising. I will post my March calendar on April 1 and you can see all my pink dots!

Friday, March 26, 2010

I have been exercising! Here is a shot the of calendar with a couple more pink dots and another checkmark. It was raining last night mixed with snow so no walking happened. Thank goodness it is Friday. All week at work I have been ready the specifications for a project my company is doing. If you don't know what aspecification project manual is, it is a book with every product that is to be used in the construction of the building, the manufacturers that have been approved to be used, the warranty information, installation of the products, and quality informtion. It can be kind of dry reading, but I try to make it a game to find the mistakes the architect has made.

One of my brothers brought me this project to do. I need to embellish the letters by mounting them on some navy fabric before attaching them to the jersey.

I need to hem this dress and coat for a neighbor's mother.

This is what I woke up to this morning. My poor daffodils are all bent over and sad. Only the group closest to the house had bloomed - the others are about 6" tall. I am sure they will bounce back.

So after I get the letters on the jersey and the hemming done, I want to get back to the green cow quilt. I have no plans to leave the house except maybe a quick trip to the grocery. All I want to do is stay at the house and get some work done! Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I need - no I have to lose some weight. I have been trying to walk every night and sometimes do my exercise tape for 54 minutes and then walk for 45 - 60 minutes. So with doing that not much sewing is happing during the week. I have found a total of 23 cents so far! Here is my calendar mapping out my schedule. I have a visual of what I have been doing and what I need to do so that I can make sure I make the time to get the exercising in. The pink dot on the 16th is when I started and did the exercise tape. The checkmark in the pink dot is that I also walked and the checkmarks by themselves is that I walked. This visual is suppose to make me feel guilty when I goof off and miss a day. Stay tuned and I will keep you updated on my progress.

Canton Village Quilt works had a 20% off sale this past weekend so I bought a 1/2 yard of the pink to go with the other pinks I bought the other day, a 1/2 yard of the Coleus just because I wanted to see it in person, and 3 yards of the Essex cotton linen blend in sand. I have never seen the Essex in person. Mostly I wanted to try it out to see if I liked it. I will use it for a baby quilt or two.

Here are some KF shot cottons that I bought from rosebudquilter etsy's shop. The mustard and sunshine will go well with my African fabrics. I will probably use the blush for a baby quilt.

I am also in the process of getting my agenda and materials list together for a class I have been asked to teach. I need to put together some kits (that will help bust my stash!) and get it submitted asap. This class will be for a baby quilt and if it goes well they want me to teach how to make a T-shirt quilt this summer. I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

Monday, March 22, 2010

There is a quilt shop in New Philadelphia, Ohio called the Material Girl and they were having their March Madness sale. Their prices are so good and at 20% off how could I not at least look! Damages - 16 yards.

I had these in my stash ...

so I bought these to go with them.

I bought three pieces on top of this pile, the red and white strip, and the red and yellow pieces with peppers on them to go with all the the rest of the red and yellow fabric for a quilt I will make one of these days.

I needed some browns to replinish my stash in case I needed to make another quilt with browns.

I had the olive polka dot and found two pieces that would go with it.

I had to buy these pinks ..

to go with this pink and gray stripe

I spent Sunday afternoon at the art museum helping hand out tickets to the people that attended the Empty Bowl Event. You buy a ticket and get a hand made bowl of your choice and three bowls of soup chosen from a dozen available from local resturants. The proceeds go to the food bank. Here is a picture of one of the two tables of bowls. We sold out at 250 bowls. The soup, esp. the salmon bisque, was wonderful.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Yes, I know I skipped Stage 9 and 10, but I don't have photos of those yet. This piece is my hand dyes (cayman island green and turquiose)and is 17 1/4" x 32". As you can see it is very densely quilted in colors matching the fabric.

I have lots of plans for the weekend - let's see how much I get done. I want to get the green and cow quilt done, I have to go have my taxes done, I need to cut down my ornamental grasses before the new growth starts with all this warm weather, make another batch of yogurt, and hem a lightweight jersey coat and dress for a neighbor's mother (that was unexpected and hard to say no to). What does your weekend look like? Hope you accomplish what you plan!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Are you wearing the green today? My great grandparents were from county Cork and immigrated to Boston. I never knew them, but I have one picture of my great grandmother sitting on a porch in a rocking chair wearing a apron. I treasure that picture.

I did go through my stash and found more fabric I could make up more quick baby quilts. Here are the blocks for the first quilt arranged and ready for assembly. I did make a mistake - the white and black should have been between the blue cow fabric and the green fabric, but what the heck. I was not going to take it apart and it looks ok to me for a giveaway quilt. I may be teaching a class on how to make this easy, but very cute baby quilt, so I am working out the fabric quantities and cutting diagrams and of course sewing the strips together in the correct order!

Here are the strip sets and binding for 3 more quilts ready to go.

I have been trying to bust my stash so as of today I am keeping track. I won't post how much I busted until the quilt is done.

Monday, March 15, 2010

I finally found a someone who will distribute the knitted baby blankets I have been making to needy families. I have four ready to go. I will probably throw in one or two quilts. I have enough yarn to make another 6 or 7.

I made my first batch of Greek yogurt. It turned out great, but I was so suprised on how little you get out of a quart of milk. It is not hard to make at all, you just have to do some planning because of the time it takes for the yogurt to ferment and the time to drain. I haven't tasted it yet, but it smells great.

I worked as a volunteer at the Akron Art Museum Ale and Beer Event on Friday night. We had a good crowd. Along with the vast aray of beer there was lots of beer food -soft pretzels, popcorn, brats, hot dogs, and nachos.

Here is a shot of my beer station. I was serving an organic pale ale and a gluten free beer.

The brown and pink quilt is done. I had it about half quilted when I went to bed Saturday night and I finished quilting it on Sunday. Got the binding on and the label. I am now five for five!

The back is made up of my pink hand dyes and the commercial brown batiks. I really like the way it turned out.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I used a dark pink thread to soften the brown a bit.

I had plans on working in the yard, but it rained all day Saturday and Sunday the temperature dropped and it was windy and cold. I guess I was pushing it thinking I could get some yard work done. It was so nice last week though!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

I managed to get my 3+ miles in again last night. The first mile is hard, then I get moving pretty good. The last 1/4 mile is up a steep hill so all I can think is to just put one foot in front of the other.

Stage 8 is 50" x 42" and made from my hand dyes. I again quilted it with Sulky rayon threads with the thread matching the fabric.

mandmstudio.blogspot.com is in need of donations for replacing dated playgound equipment. Hop over to the blog for more information.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I have gotten a little more done on this baby blanket, but no sewing this week. I decided I need to get moving and get some stamina built up for working at Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, Ohio for their anniversary sale May 7 and 8. Fabric, patterns, notions, and books will be 30% off and we will be busy. I get to work one of the cutting counters and will be standing 8 to 10 hours. I have a job that I sit all day and my legs have gone to mush! So my goal is to start walking between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 miles every night. I started Monday this week and so far so good except I am wiped out so no sewing has occured. I did do a load of laundry, but I didn't think anyone would want to see a picture of that! I figure by the middle of next week I will start to feel better, the blisters on my little toes will be healed, and I will be able to have the stamia to get a little sewing done before bedtime.

Monday, March 8, 2010

I got the rest of the pieces cut out for the brown and pink quilt. I did get a few blocks pieced. I am using a liberated method so the stars will not be exactly the same. I just have to line up each block so I don't get the points going in the wrong direction.

I spent Saturday afternoon at a baby shower. I had to make a bag to put the scrappy pink quilt that I posted a couple of weeks ago - I didn't have any wrapping paper so I made a bag. I also made a bag with yellow monkeys on it for the yellow zig zag quilt.

Below is a small clip of the Battle of the band my nephew was in Saturday night. It is the beginning of "Voodoo Child" by Jimi Hendrix. They are 6th graders that have been playing together for 4 or 5 years. Yes, that means they started when they were in the first grade! The clip is not very good - I was too far away - But they won! They beat 5 other bands that ranged from a band that had been together for only 8 months to a high school boys to a death metal band. They won a huge trophy and a prime spot in the Cuyhoga Falls Rockin' on the River Festival this summer.

I made 100 of these cord tamers for my brother, M, who is now the chief rodie, technician, and production crew for his son's band Retro. M use to tour years ago with my other brother B. You would not believe how many mic and electrical cords they need to put on a show. Pull the hook and loop apart and place one end of the extension cord between the hook and loop and then press together so the cord is sandwiched between. Wind the cord up. Then wrap the long loop piece around the cord onto the hook piece and now you have a cord nicely wrapped and easy to store.

Friday, March 5, 2010

This is the first block for the pink and brown baby quilt. The finish size right now is 9 1/2 x 11. I may adjust and recut the blocks because the porportions are not quite right. It seems the direction I am heading is a quilt that is too long for the width. My goal this weekend is to get all the blocks made and the top back and batting pinned and ready for quilting. I also need to make a bag to put the pink scrap quilt in. The bag will serve as the gift wrapping.I have added today a short video clip of me machine quilting. My ex-cousin by marriage shot it for me very quickly. I needed it for an art show that I was participating last December at the Akron Art Museum. I had a feeling people were going to be asking me how I did the quilting on the quilts I was displaying and I was right. I played the video many times. Tonight is the battle of the bands that was posponed from last Friday due to the snow storm. I am going to try and take video and post it so that is why I posted the video of me machine quilting. I needed to see if would work - that is if I could actually post a video!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The daughter of a woman I work with is having a baby and D asked if I would make her a quilt. "Sure! Of course! What color?" I said. D said "Pink and brown." All righty then. I ripped thru my pink and blue stash last year and cut most of it up into 4" squares. I just wanted to reduce my stash of older fabrics. So last night I did find some larger pieces of pink. I have quite a few leftover browns from some other quilts I did last year.

Here is the box of pink scraps I have left. I will come up with something. I am not going to buy any fabric for this. As Tim Gunn says "Make it work!"

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

This is a piece that I explored getting down to using the least amount of fabrics, but the piece would still have complexity. I used two of my favorite hand dyed fabrics, improvisationaly cut and pieced. I free motion quilted it with Sulky rayon. It is 30.5" wide and 17" heigh. It is now hanging in my foyer and it makes me smile when I see it.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Three for three is for this year I have gotten three baby quilts done before the babies arrived. Actually, I am going to say four for four because I took one of the quilts I had in my stash (see the picture above) and gave it to a fellow I work with. So here is the finished yellow zig zag, the back and a close up of the quilting.Here is the back. I just used the leftover pieces from cutting the blocks from the strips. I like it!Here is a shot of the quilting. It takes me between 5 and 6 hours to quilt a baby sized quilt - 40" x 53". I like lots of quilting!

It snowed some this weekend, but it didn't stick to the roads. The battle of the bands was cancelled Friday because all the schools were closed. It has been reschedule for this Friday. I am going to try and take a some video of my nephew's band and post it.